Ohioans vulnerable to extreme weather, climate disruption

New national climate assessment shows urgent need for action to protect Ohio families

Published: May 7, 2014 5:36 AM

OHIO -- A national committee of experts in agriculture, climate science, commerce, and disaster relief released its National Climate Assessment (NCA). The report is the nation’s foremost comprehensive, peer-reviewed analysis of the impacts of climate disruption, showing us the effects of climate change in Ohio and across the country.

The report shows the significant toll on health and wallets that extreme weather is already exacting in the Midwest. It also makes clear that these impacts will only grow worse if we fail to curb carbon pollution, the main culprit behind climate disruption.

Ohio is part of the NCA’s Midwest Region, which predicts direct effects from climate change will include increased heat stress, flooding, drought, and late spring freezes, altering ecosystem and socioeconomic patterns and processes in ways that most people in the region would consider detrimental. The Midwest’s agricultural lands, forests, Great Lakes, industrial activities and cities are all vulnerable to climate variability and climate change.

“This report clearly lays out the threats to health and economic security families in the Midwest are facing from climate disruption,” said Dan Sawmiller, campaign representative for the Sierra Club Ohio. “It’s time for action from Washington, and it’s time for Gov. Kasich to develop a strong, common-sense plan to protect Ohio’s families.”

“The need to move away from dirty fossil fuels such as coal and fracked gas, the leading sources of climate-disrupting carbon pollution, could not be clearer or more urgent,” said Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. “It’s time that we as a nation end our dependence on fossil fuels and hasten the shift to readily available, cost-effective clean energy sources, like wind and solar. Today’s climate report shows the cost of inaction is far too great.”

More than 240 authors from across the country with diverse expertise helped create the National Climate Assessment. The findings are considered conservative estimates of the impacts of climate disruption.